THE council has come under fire for “wasting” more than £250,000 on Elmbridge Museum in one year.

Following a Freedom of Information request, Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC) was forced to reveal to the News & Mail that for the financial year of 2007/08 it spent £257,134 of taxpayers’ money on the museum.

Broken down, the figures show £142,000 was for staff salaries, £33,000 for accommodation and insurance — including rent for the use of the building — £28,000 was on services and supplies and £46,000 on central support costs.

In that same year the museum received just 7,833 visitors, including 332 school children, bringing into question the facility’s value for money.

The statistics show the museum has failed to improve since a damning report, commissioned by EBC two years ago, branded the facility gloomy, unattractive and dated. At that time it was discovered that visitor numbers had plummeted from 9,802 in 2002/03 to 7,960 in 2004/05.

This week Claygate councillor Jimmy Cartwright accused the council of wasting money and said people would be horrified when they learned how much had been spent on it.

“My view is that it’s a total waste of money,” he said. “I think it should be closed down. It costs a fortune to keep it going.

“Some museums are very good but the Elmbridge one should be closed. I don’t see how they can improve it. It’s in the wrong location. I believe what’s caused a problem is that schools don’t use it as much as they used to but then it hasn’t got a lot of good exhibits.

“I think most people will be horrified when they find out how much has been spent on the museum.”

In an attempt to improve the attraction of the museum the council’s learning officer visited 1,884 pupils at borough schools in 2007/08 to promote the exhibits. There were also plans to relocate the museum to the vacant former site of Walton Library, but EBC’s bid for a £1million lottery grant was turned down. Cobham historian David Taylor suggested the museum establish small displays in the borough’s libraries and other facilities to promote what is on offer at the museum. Another key issue is the inconvenient location of the facility.

He said: “Certainly from my point of view of being in Cobham, there are a great number of people who have never heard of it let alone used it. It’s probably not the best place to site it. Nevertheless, I’d be very loath to see it close. We do need something like that.

“Maybe there should be some thought given to splitting it. We have talked for a while about having some heritage centre in Cobham. Well, how about having some of the museum’s material here? There are a lot of people in Cobham interested in history.”

Mr Taylor was shocked at the amount of money spent on the museum. He was unsure whether the facility provides value for money and urged the museum to bring in new exhibitions.

A council spokesman said EBC is investigating ways to raise the profile of the museum and has a series of special events and exhibitions planned in the run up to the museum’s centenary celebrations in June 2009.